Sep 2013

Got Torah?

Photo credit from TabletMag.com.

Mechon Hadar was launched 7 years ago by 3 Wexner Graduate Fellowship Alumni (myself, Rabbi Ethan Tucker, Class 11, and Rabbi Shai Held, Class 7). We have often been asked to bring the compelling Torah taught by our faculty (including many more Wexner alumni!) to a much wider audience. The three of us have also had the honor to serve at various times as Wexner faculty for the Heritage Program and hear consistently a real desire to continue to grapple with Jewish texts – some succeed beautifully in continuing their commitment to high level learning long after their twice a month classes. Others unintentionally let this slip away. But it’s a new year with new energy and new hope. And to match your zest, we have a boost.

Rabbi Shai Held (Class 7), my colleague and Chair in Jewish Thought at Mechon Hadar, and someone I consider a personal teacher, will be writing a weekly Dvar Torah on the Torah portion starting in October. It’s free and we especially welcome the Wexner community to sign up. Feel free to spread the word to your networks of colleagues and congregants.

To sign up for a weekly torah blast from Rabbi Shai Held, click here.

Rabbi Elie Kaunfer is co-founder, rosh yeshiva and executive director of Mechon Hadar and on the Talmud faculty at Yeshivat Hadar. A graduate of Harvard College, he was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary, where he also completed an MA and is pursuing a doctorate in liturgy. A Wexner Graduate Fellow, class 15, Elie is a co-founder of Kehilat Hadar and in 2009 Newsweek named him one of  the top 50 rabbis in America. He was selected as an inaugural AVI CHAI Fellow, and is the author of Empowered Judaism: What Independent Minyanim Can Teach Us About Building Vibrant Jewish Communities (Jewish Lights, 2010).